Joseph Edward Strickland
By the Grace of God and the Apostolic See
Bishop of Tyler

TO THE CLERGY, RELIGIOUS & CATHOLIC FAITHFUL OF THE DIOCESE OF TYLER,
HEALTH AND BENEDICTION

Jesus Christ, True Mercy

This Sunday we begin the holy season of Advent and with it our solemn preparations for Christmas when we welcome our Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnation and true face of the Father’s mercy. We also make ourselves ready to enter the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, a time in the life of the Church declared by Pope Francis to encourage us to contemplate the mystery of mercy as a wellspring of joy, serenity, and peace. The Holy Year will begin on December 8, 2015 and conclude on November 20, 2016. Bearing in mind these two events, I would like to take a moment to share this reflection on mercy and how it is incorporated into our lives as disciples of Jesus Christ, and specifically as Catholics.

We live in the Age of Mercy because we live in the world after the saving work, the Paschal Mystery, of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In this context I believe we can say that the Catholic Church, founded by Christ Himself, exists as an instrument of mercy, a house of mercy, and a place from which the mercy of God should always flow. We see the foundation of mercy in the oft quoted and beautiful Gospel verse of John 3:16: the Father’s preeminent act of mercy was to share with humanity His only begotten Son. Embedded in this profoundly loving act of the Father is an acknowledgment that humanity was broken and deeply in need of a savior, deeply in need of mercy. The mercy which Jesus Christ offers to the world through His Church is hard-won, not only through his passion, death and resurrection, but truly through every moment of his time on earth as the God-Man. I believe placing mercy in this context is essential if we desire to pursue true mercy in the way we live.

True mercy always flows from God’s love and directs us toward God’s will for us - that we share His gift of everlasting life. This focus regarding mercy is essential because we are so easily tempted to move toward a superficial understanding and application of mercy that is actually not mercy at all.

In our modern culture, mercy is too often equated with “being nice” or “being soft.” Rather, if we return to the foundation of true mercy mentioned above, the mercy rooted in God’s will, which is love and mercy itself, we find that mercy is actually anything but soft. Real mercy is strong and powerful because it does not shy away from our broken existence, but instead it stands face to face with the ugly and the broken and calls us to turn away from those things by bringing the healing balm of truth and genuine freedom to bear. True mercy is transformational! Ultimately mercy is bound up with facing the truth and being challenged to move from brokenness to wholeness. The denial of this is possibly at the very heart of our modern dilemma. Too often mercy is interpreted as removing the challenge, being tolerant of the transgression and passing over the consequences of our broken reality, rather than facing it head on and being freed by that very confrontation.

Once again I cannot resist returning to the model of mercy that is the life of Jesus Christ. In the ultimate act of mercy, He embraces the cross in order to open the floodgates of mercy. In the same way, any authentic mercy demands that we hold the cross close as well. If we ignore the only authentic model of mercy we are at risk of promoting a false mercy which leads us away from life and ultimately abandons us to death. The mercy that Christ shows the world through every act of His life here on earth, and especially in His crucifixion, is a mercy that faces down the power of sin by allowing the power of love to overcome the darkness. In this way, the grace of God not only covers our sins, but it transforms us in Christ's image.

Through the intercession of the Mother of Mercy, I pray that this Jubilee Year may have a profound effect on the human family by allowing us to live more deeply in the Gospel message of the author and face of mercy, Jesus Christ.

Given at the Diocesan Chancery on November 21, 2015,
the Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.